really special game, lovely in ways you don't necessarily expect video games to be, so earnest and passionate and cute and sad...has this palpable sense of anger and despair and lost possibilities and best wishes gone to the wayside underneath it all too. it's impressive how well the game manages to convey both genuine anguish and tempered hopefulness without becoming nicecore or fake-angsty (but actually vapid) a la persona. absolute stellar collection of funny little guys that you can assemble and i really appreciate how (aside from one or two hiccups) you really can organize your team on the basis of aesthetics and style over pure functionality....biggest complaint is in the second to last boss fight the RNG fall damage is hilariously busted and can instakill you at any point despite doing 0 dmg 90% of time

the best of the three persona games i've played which is obviously damning it with faint praise but whatever it's kinda cute! suffers from the issues all of them have where the social link mechanics undercut the bullshit chuuni anime melodrama plot by turning the peripheral characters into utility dispensers for your/the MC's libertarian grindset and there's the classic trans/homophobic beach scene that makes an obligatory appearance in all of them and sucks more because it's fucking boring and stupid than because it's bigoted in the most limpdick unfunny way imaginable. has a great main cast though - koromaru and aigis the MVPs here. i sunk 80 hours of my fucking life into this game i am so massively depressed